The news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed was first read on Twitter! Last Sunday evening, May 1, people from the White House announced that Barack Obama would be giving a speech. Subsequently, a discussion erupted on Twitter: What will the speech be about!?
Famous through one Tweet.....How!?
Keith Urbahn, who was the first to come out with the correct news, tweeted: “So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn”. This message turned not only journalism but also Twitter users upside down.
Is it really true? How does he know that? Questions like that arose not only among journalists but also among regular Twitter users. Because the tweet was retweeted by Twitter users, the news spread like wildfire.
Another avid Twitter user, Sohaib Athar, the same thing happened to him. He had just moved to Abbottabad for private reasons. During the raid that took place in Abbottabad, he tweeted exactly what was happening. “And now, a plane flying over Abbottabad…” was one of the 100 tweets he tweeted about the raid! Read here his tweets.
These tweets were also retweeted, causing more than 100.000 Twitter users to follow him in no time! As a result, he too was flooded with journalists from newspapers, radio, and news programs.
Interesting
Twitter is now building a reputation for being the first to break 'breaking news'. As a result, citizens are reporting news increasingly before journalists. In 2008, Twitter became journalistically interesting as a source of breaking news during harrowing events. The crash of the Airbus into the Hudson River and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai are examples of this. The first photos and reports about these disasters appeared on Twitter and were only picked up later by mainstream media, such as newspapers and television.
Ready to see how Snowflake works?
Although meaningless tweets are often published on Twitter (71% of all tweets are ignored), it is a welcome addition to every journalist's toolbox. As long as the laws of journalism (checking sources and the like) are applied to Twitter as well, the most famous microblogging site forms an inexhaustible source of relevant information and news!
I am curious if you also know of any gripping events that were first published by Twitter?
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